Toddler's death a tragic indicator of erosion in community

Sunday

Jun 30, 2013 at 3:15 AMJul 1, 2013 at 3:07 PM

I have dark matters to discuss.

I did not know him and never saw his little face, but the murder of Noah York, the Somersworth toddler suffocated by his mother's boyfriend, is haunting me. On Friday night, June 14, 30-year-old Jared Pope used blankets, nylon rope and a duffel bag to smother the 2-year-old boy.

Why? Why did this precious little boy have to die in such a cruel manner? Prosecutors claim Pope wrapped Noah in blankets, tied a nylon rope around him, covered him with a sheet, placed a pillow over him, laid him face down in bed and left a duffel bag weighing in the range of 15-20 pounds on top of him — all because he was crying. Two year olds cry all the time. They get tired, thirsty and hungry. Sometimes they just want their mommies.

Prosecutors also claim Noah fought for his life. There were weaving marks on his body suggesting that in those final minutes of his life, he struggled against the ropes, desperately trying to escape.

Noah's death did not go unnoticed in the community. Somersworth folks reacted with a mixture of sorrow, horror, outrage, disgust and fear. In one of our stories about Noah's killing, former longtime Somersworth Mayor Jim McLin, who owns a cleaning business in the city, said the community has changed radically over the years. “People are scared,” McLin told a Foster's reporter. “You can't take anything for granted and the children don't seem to stand a chance.”

The story also noted this change: “The McLins have had their business in the city for 31 years, and they admit they hardly recognize people that walk into their store anymore.”

McLin told Foster's: “It's a whole different climate. People come around here asking for money and cigarettes.”

I know the old Somersworth Jim McLin is talking about. My father was born there and graduated from Somersworth High School. My husband, Dan, grew up in the city, graduated from Somersworth High and was a teacher in the public school system for nearly 40 years.

Somersworth used to be a family friendly place where people worked hard — many at the General Electric Plant, Prime Tanning over the bridge in Berwick, Maine, or other local factories and shoe shops. Moms and dads — many Roman Catholic and proud of their French Canadian heritage — generally supported their children, watched the high school football team on Saturday, went to St. Martin's Church on Sunday and knew their neighbors.

Now, it's not the same. What happened?

The changes didn't happen overnight. Years of decline took their toll. The shoe shops are long gone. The General Electric plant that used to employ thousands of people became a ghost factory. It never fully shut down and is now making a modest resurgence, but not nearly as many people work there. And, across the bridge, the weeds are growing up through the pavement at the old Prime Tanning factory, which has been sitting vacant for years.

As the manufacturing base crumbled, families moved away and the tight-knit neighborhoods close to downtown — and even the historic homes on the hill — became a collection of cheap duplexes and apartment houses bought by outside landlords wanting to make a quick buck. Some of the people who rented those places didn't have jobs and existed on some combination of welfare and Social Security disability. These tenants didn't belong to a church, and raised kids, who like their parents, became adults with no jobs living on public assistance. And the vicious cycle continues — poverty, crime, a diminished sense of community, aimlessness, substance abuse and, yes, sometimes horrific child abuse.

I do not know Jared Pope personally, but Foster's did find out Pope did not have a job. The information came to us in court paperwork about his custody battle for his 8-month-old biological son. “I have no job, but I have a home and car that will give my son what he needs,” Pope wrote in support of a motion to grant him custody of his child.

Please don't misunderstand. This is not an indictment of poor people. Not every jobless person or welfare recipient will kill a child. Times are tough and many decent, hard-working people found themselves unemployed and on public assistance. That's what welfare is for — to help people.

But here's what is true: The loss of good jobs leads to the erosion of communities and creates conditions that lead to horrible tragedies like little Noah. There is a growing underbelly in our midst and many who have grown up without a sense of family or community. They are aimless, sometimes drug addicted and raise their children the way they were raised — with extreme indifference and cruelty.

Somersworth is not the only local community with these kinds of troubles. I didn't know Noah, but I do know another little boy about his age. This beautiful little guy lives in a nearby city and has already suffered serious abuse at the hands of his parents. Maybe he won't die, but at some point soon, the light will go out of his eyes and he will stop smiling.

I think of him constantly. He has the face of an angel. And I feel helpless because I cannot save him or fix the social ills that put him in constant danger.

Let us hope the good people of Somersworth come together to heal their city so Noah will not have died in vain.

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